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So then the Eb" button and the D#" button on the right side play different pairs of reeds?

Also, out of curiosity, if one were to desire such an instrument but with the Hayden slanted rows, could it be made without too much extra work?

The Eb" and the D#" on the right side do indeed play different pairs of reeds.

And as far as making one with the rows in the Hayden slant, that's not something we could do without a prohibitive amount of extra work. It would require a total redesign of the lever arm locations, which would undoubtedly force us to move the reeds around, possibly forcing us to drop one or two. What we did was a major, major design project. In all the 30 odd years of my software life I never dealt with any project as mind-bogglingly complex, weird, frustrating and discouraging as getting the levers arms to run reasonably directly to their pads, given the limitation that the reeds should fit in a mere three dimensions. If I'd've had a fourth dimension, now.... (which is the nice thing about software: need another dimension? add one. Add six, if you need them. Sixty four, while you're at it; and let the computer keep track of them for you).

The beauty of the wedge shape of concertina reeds is that they fit in that nice radial pattern, so you get a lot of leeway in which to turn things this way and that. Accordion reeds are so big and rectangular, you don't have hardly any wiggle room, and that forces all kinds of weirdness on the rest of the instrument, unless you are willing to use short scale reeds, but even then (if you accept the musical compromise, and we really prefer not to) the short scale reeds don't help all that much. You just wind up with more little chunks of leftover space that you can't combine to fit another reed into.

If you come to the open house at the concertina workshop, I'll have my drawings for people to see; but I didn't keep the buckets of sweat and tears that Bob and I wept over them.

Judy Hawkins

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I should qualify my previous response: the other way to get the "Hayden" slant is to get a custom handle made. We did noodle around early on in the design process with ideas for a moveable handle, but the reality is that when you start trying to accomodate everyone's anatomy and preference, you wind up trying to please everyone and that's a huge and fundamentally impossible design problem. So we focussed on the instrument and put a standard concertina handle on it: that's one of the choices we made in the interests of creating an instrument that meets our musical standards -- the Ceili, Albion and Geordie -- while keeping the price in line with our other instruments.

For example: Violins come with a standard chin rest and no shoulder rest; you go buy your own from what's out on the after market, or if you've got specialized needs, you build it custom: for example, here is an example of the solutions a Dutch group came up with to meet the differing needs of a group of young violinists.

We just can't be in the business of building custom solutions; we've come up with what we think will suit the broadest range of players. There's the issue of people switching between their Stagi or Wheatstone instruments -- but since Stagi totally got the angle wrong -- it's 8.5 degrees on one side and 15 degrees on the other -- there is no way we can accomodate the Stagi folks. And the Hayden slant is really hard on people with shorter pinkies.

And again, to refer out to the wider world of music, there are people who switch back and forth between different sizes of guitar; between viola and violin; between all five sizes of recorder. My own experience is that every English concertina is so different from my own that I get in trouble even with buttons that are in the same orientation; but I have also had the experience of switching from soprano recorder to alto. That was a real shock, but once I got used to it, it became comfortable. Currently I'm playing viola and tenor banjo, and the nice thing about the tenor banjo stretch is it makes the viola feel small.

My own personal experience is that when I've gotten over the hump of "the new instrument feels weird and different and makes me play worse and feel rotten about my playing" -- once I've put in the work to get comfortable on the new one, I go back to the old one and find that I am better on the old instrument -- more flexible, more at ease, more able to roll with the challenges. So that experience has colored my own personal views about the question of the "the Hayden slant" and what kind of handle and all that.

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Congrats to all at the BB for this lovely looking and sounding creation. I just have one (tongue in cheek) question. There are three videos on the page -- demonstrating the new duet. Supposedly, based on the titles, Aaron Marcus is playing on two of these videos and David Barnett is playing on one of the videos. But whoever is playing, all three videos feature a fine player wearing the exact same shirt and pants. Do these guys have to share clothing as well as the prototype concertina?

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I just have one (tongue in cheek) question. There are three videos on the page -- demonstrating the new duet. Supposedly, based on the titles, Aaron Marcus is playing on two of these videos and David Barnett (sic) is playing on one of the videos. But whoever is playing, all three videos feature a fine player wearing the exact same shirt and pants. Do these guys have to share clothing ...

Except note that Aaron's vest didn't fit me.

Actually, we didn't even see each other that day (Sunday, April 14, the day after the Northeast Concertina Workshop). Aaron (and Chris Stevens on Anglo) had already recorded their sets and left by the time I got there.

as well as the prototype concertina?

I don't know if we even played the same concertina. I played the prototype, but Aaron actually owns one, so he was probably playing his.

Absolutely wonderful playing in any case.

Thank you.

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I dunno, Ross, their clothes look pretty different to me, even without taking the vest into account--Aaron's shirt is bluer than David's, and his trousers look to be more of a greenish-brown whereas David's are a shade of grey that's only slightly different from his shirt (on my monitor, at least). That, and Aaron plays with one end of the instrument on each thigh and moves his legs while he plays, whereas David rests only the right end on his right thigh. What's that? Too serious a response to a tongue-in-cheek comment? Well, if you believe that, sir, clearly you cannot see my hat.

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When I packed for the weekend, the farthest thing from my mind was that I might be recording a video by the end of it. I thought I was going to spend Sunday having a leisurely breakfast and driving home.

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Ordered on 28th March, ready on 21st May. How's that for service? Arrived today, after the usual wait for payment, customs etc to be processed. Looks as perfect as in the website pictures, every reed plays despite the long journey between the US and UK. Light, responsive, feels like an extension of my arms and makes my hands feel as if they're dancing. Well balanced - the low notes don't drown out the high notes. Fabulous. If you're not sure - go for it. Worth every penny.